September was probably one of the most unusual months since we moved to Vietnam.

It started in Ho Chi Minh City, continued with three very full weeks back in Belgium — with even a little excursion to the Netherlands — and ended exactly where this expat adventure is now based: back in HCMC and, most importantly, reunited with #Woody!

Birthday, wedding, graduation, gastronomy, family, friends, an engagement, working across time zones, a book becoming real and quite a few kilometres in between.

September also made me think about something I had perhaps not really considered when we moved to Vietnam.

When you become an expat, where exactly is home?

Belgium will obviously always be home. It is where so much of our history is, where family and many of our closest friends remain, and where countless memories were created.

But after more than a year living in Vietnam, something else happened.

At the end of our three weeks in Belgium, we were also ready to go home to HCMC.

Maybe that is when you know that the expat experience has really become part of your life.

A Riverside Afternoon at The Deck

Before leaving Vietnam, we enjoyed a lovely afternoon with friends at The Deck Saigon.

The Deck has been part of Saigon’s riverside dining scene since 2008. Sitting directly on the banks of the Saigon River, it focuses on seafood and Asian-fusion cuisine, but I think the real attraction is the setting.

And that was certainly our experience.

The food was OK. Nothing wrong with it, but if I judge the afternoon purely on the food, I am not entirely convinced it is worth travelling all the way from District 7.

But fortunately, an afternoon at The Deck is not purely about the food.

Sitting outside alongside the river, feeling the breeze, watching boats passing and enjoying a long conversation with good friends changes the equation completely. Saigon is an intense city, so finding somewhere where you can simply sit outside and watch the river go by is already an experience.

Sometimes the location becomes part of the meal.

For the atmosphere, the company and the pleasure of spending a few hours outside beside the Saigon River, The Deck delivered exactly what we wanted.

Would I cross the city just for the food? Probably not.

Would I return for another relaxed afternoon by the river with friends?

Absolutely.

Birthday Time… and Back to Belgo!

September also meant another birthday.

And what better excuse for another dinner with friends at Belgo Belgian Craft Beer?

Regular readers of these monthly updates will know that Belgo has already appeared several times. A Belgian brewery in Saigon producing Belgian-style craft beers locally, accompanied by Belgian dishes with some Vietnamese influences, it has become one of our familiar places in HCMC.

There is perhaps something slightly amusing about moving from Belgium to Vietnam and then regularly visiting a Belgian brewery.

But expat life is also about finding small connections with home.

This time, however, the restaurant was secondary. The important part was simply having friends around the table and enjoying another very nice evening together.

And I would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday.

Messages arrived from different parts of the world and, as always, they were very much appreciated.

Another year older.

I am not sure about wiser. 😉

HCMC → Belgium with Emirates

Then it was time to leave Vietnam.

Three weeks in Belgium!

We travelled with Emirates, and I have to say that the overall experience was excellent.

Long-haul travel becomes considerably more complicated when wheelchair assistance is required, particularly when connections are involved. In our case, the logistics worked extremely well.

Everything was organised properly, the wheelchair support worked smoothly, the service onboard was impeccable and even the food was not bad at all.

When you are travelling halfway around the world, these things make an enormous difference.

Instead of worrying about whether assistance will be there at the next stage of the journey, you can simply concentrate on travelling.

Based on this experience, I would happily recommend Emirates.

Working From Belgium… on Vietnam Time

Three weeks in Belgium did not mean three weeks of holidays.

Weeks one and three were working weeks.

Working virtually has been part of my professional DNA for many years, so the concept itself was not an issue.

The time difference was.

To remain aligned with Vietnam, I was waking up at around 3:00 AM, with some first meetings starting at 4:00 AM.

It is perfectly possible.

But it is certainly an experience!

The biggest challenge was not actually getting through the working day. Once you are awake and start talking to colleagues, the professional rhythm takes over.

The real challenge was having enough energy left afterwards to enjoy the reason we were in Belgium: family and friends.

My solution?

The power nap.

A short sleep after work gave me enough energy to spend the evenings with everybody rather than becoming the guy falling asleep at the dinner table at 7 PM.

The strange part was the constant adaptation.

Five days working largely on Vietnam time.

Then moving back towards Belgian time.

Then another working week on Vietnam time.

Then flying back to HCMC.

The unexpected upside?

Almost no jet lag when returning to Vietnam.

So, strangely enough, despite those slightly brutal 3 AM alarms, I may actually use the same approach again in 2027.

Another small learning from expat life.

Apparently, you can negotiate with your internal clock.

Event #1 – Aymerick’s Wedding at Ferme des Beaux-Monts

The first major event of our Belgian stay was a very special one: the wedding of my godson, Aymerick.

The celebration took place at Ferme des Beaux-Monts, in the countryside of the Plateau de Herve.

The venue is very much designed around occasions like weddings and family celebrations, combining its green countryside setting with an established catering operation. It was therefore the perfect environment for bringing everybody together.

And bringing everybody together was really what mattered.

When you live more than 9,000 kilometres away, having so much of the family in one place becomes increasingly precious.

We ate well, laughed a lot and simply had great fun.

More importantly, it was wonderful to see Aymerick moving forward into another chapter of his life.

There are events you attend because they are in the calendar.

And there are events that remind you why travelling halfway around the world was worth it.

This was definitely one of those.

Congratulations again, Aymerick!

Event #2 – Celebrating Yael at ¡Toma!

Then came one of the gastronomic highlights of the entire trip.

For quite some time before moving to HCMC, I had tried several times to get a table at ¡Toma! in Liège.

Without success.

And then guess what?

My son Yael booked in June and managed to secure a table for mid-September.

Well done, son!

The lunch was organised to celebrate his graduation, so expectations were already high.

Led by chef Thomas Troupin, ¡Toma! describes its approach as cuisine immersive — cuisine closely connected to the seasons, nature, producers and the relationships surrounding the ingredients.

That philosophy isn’t simply something written on a website.

You actually feel it during the meal.

We enjoyed every part of the experience.

The service was professional while remaining warm and relaxed, and the team was even able to provide the service in English for Yulia, which was greatly appreciated.

I also chose the non-alcoholic drinks pairing, and it deserves a special mention.

Too many restaurants still treat the non-alcoholic pairing as the secondary alternative to the “real” wine pairing.

Not here.

The drinks felt genuinely designed to accompany and interact with the dishes.

It was simply perfect.

The restaurant was also able to accommodate our requirements while preserving the experience, which is something I always appreciate at this level of dining.

And then, of course, there was the food.

Our ¡Toma! Experience

Herb bread, lovage labneh
Sausage
Roasted butternut squash, yuzu butter

Grilled sea bass crackers, fire-roasted and confit tomatoes, sage-smoked cream
Cauliflower tartlet, black garlic, finger lime

Bouchot brioche, vermouth velouté, nettle green juice, peppermint
Bean jus, Bouchot mussel, salt pork, rose geranium

Ondenval trout, just warmed, garden broth, verbena
Tomato and pork belly water, charred pepper salsa, lemon salt, helichrysum

American-style sandwich, fries
Grilled liver, sorrel, Béarnaise sauce, Tulsi basil, BBQ sauce
Lothar’s tartine — an expression of biodiversity

Fire-roasted duck, flower condiment, sherry jus
Stuffed peppers with legs, mint verbena, yuzu mousseline

Red fruit, almond and plum tube
Sorrel, fig, buckwheat and marjoram sorbet
Like a plum tart, with tomato compote

Hay crème brûlée
Cookies
Cream puff with buttercream

Yes, it was a long menu.

But it never felt like a simple succession of plates.

There was a progression and a real sense of discovery throughout the lunch — sometimes familiar, sometimes surprising, occasionally playful, but consistently coherent.

This was exactly the kind of gastronomic experience I had hoped to enjoy at ¡Toma! before leaving Belgium.

Apparently, all I needed to do was move to Vietnam and let my son make the reservation!

I am very glad he did.

And Another Reason to Celebrate…

September brought another piece of very good family news.

Our older son Thomas and Yulia have formalised their relationship and are now officially engaged!

Another chapter beginning.

When you live abroad, some important family moments inevitably happen while you are thousands of kilometres away.

That makes being physically together for news like this even more special.

We are delighted for both of them and very much looking forward to what comes next.

September was definitely becoming a month of milestones.

Event #3 – Yael’s Graduation

Then came one of the main reasons for the trip.

Yael’s graduation.

Seeing your child graduate is one of those moments that is difficult to describe without falling into all the usual parental clichés.

So I will happily use one.

We were proud. Very proud.

Watching him graduate with his Master’s degree in Political Sciences was about much more than receiving a diploma.

It represented years of work, decisions, challenges, learning, growing up and gradually building his own direction.

And now comes the next stage.

The world.

No pressure, Yael! 😉

I think the role of a parent gradually changes at moments like this.

You don’t choose the road anymore — if you ever really did.

You watch.

You advise when asked.

You occasionally advise when not asked.

And you remain somewhere in the background knowing that whatever happens, support is always available.

So congratulations, Yael.

Enjoy what comes next.

Build your own path, make a few mistakes because everybody does, learn from them, and keep moving forward.

We will always be there to support you.

Event #4 – Pizza & Love

A gastronomic lunch is wonderful.

A graduation ceremony is emotional.

But sometimes the perfect ending to a big family day is simply…

Pizza!

So after the graduation we spent the evening at Maccione – PIZZA & LOVE.

Maccione presents itself as an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria where tradition meets innovation, trying to create more of an experience than simply another pizza restaurant.

But that evening, we weren’t really there to conduct a detailed restaurant review.

We were there to sit around a table together after a very special day.

Pizza, conversation, laughter and one increasingly complicated family question:

Where in the world shall we all meet together next?

When your children are building their own careers and relationships — and when their parents have decided to move to Vietnam — organising the next complete family gathering begins to resemble an international programme.

Fortunately, I have some professional experience in that area. 😉

Event #5 – Michael & Davide and Another New Beginning

Another important part of returning to Belgium was simply seeing friends.

We visited Michael and Davide, who had just moved into their new house close to our place.

After the flooding and the different moves they have had to deal with, it was genuinely good to see them settling into a nice neighbourhood and beginning another chapter.

Sometimes moving house is simply moving house.

But after disruption, having somewhere that feels stable again means considerably more.

We are really happy for them and are looking forward to seeing them more regularly whenever we are back in Belgium.

Distance changes friendships.

But it doesn’t necessarily weaken them.

Sometimes you simply pick up the conversation where you left it.

Event #6 – Friends, Osso Bucco and Future Gastronomic Plans

Then came another evening that reminded us exactly what we miss when living abroad.

Dinner with our dear friends Michel, Nicole, Valerie-Anne and Benoit.

Including a divine Osso Bucco!

Nothing complicated.

No tourist attraction.

No major event.

Just friends around a table, great food, conversation and laughter.

And sometimes those are precisely the evenings you remember.

Valerie-Anne and Benoit are also preparing to move into a new house, while Michel and Nicole are already talking with us about organising a gastronomic weekend together.

Now that sounds like a project I am very willing to sponsor!

These moments reveal one of the less visible sides of expatriation.

You move abroad and meet new people.

You create new friendships.

You gradually build another social life.

That is fantastic.

But returning home reminds you that the friendships you left behind haven’t disappeared.

You simply miss them.

And when you finally sit around the same table again, you realise how much.

So yes, Michel and Nicole…

We need to make that gastronomic weekend happen!

Event #7 – A Little Trip to the Netherlands

Our Belgian stay even included a small international excursion.

We headed towards Eindhoven to meet Anchit.

Unfortunately, Aditi couldn’t join us because of professional commitments, and our respective schedules gave us only a small window of opportunity.

So we found somewhere roughly between our locations and spent a couple of hours together on a terrace near Eindhoven.

Sometimes two hours are enough.

Families.

Careers.

Children.

Life.

The decisions we make.

The decisions our children make.

Where everybody is heading next.

I have always found conversations with Anchit refreshing because we can move easily between professional discussions and very personal reflections about careers, families and life.

When you have lived and worked in several countries, friendships also become international.

You eventually stop measuring proximity in kilometres.

You measure it by whether someone is willing to find those two hours when you happen to be on the same side of the planet.

It was great to catch up.

Next time, hopefully Aditi will be able to join us as well.

The People I Collected – A Book Becomes Real

September also brought another important milestone, although this one had been quietly developing in the background for quite some time.

The People I Collected.

My book.

Writing those words still feels slightly strange.

Over the years, SDB-Plus has become a place where I have written about travel, food, work, illness, recovery, family and whatever adventure happened to come next.

But when I looked back at those different chapters of my life, I realised that the real story wasn’t simply the events.

It was the people.

That idea eventually became The People I Collected.

The book is not really a traditional autobiography and it certainly isn’t a list of achievements. It is a reflection on a life shaped by encounters — the people who stayed for decades, those who were present for only a short period, those who helped, challenged, taught or inspired me, and sometimes those who probably never realised the influence they had.

And in 2026, the project moved from manuscript to publication.

Seeing a collection of memories gradually become an actual book has been a fascinating process: writing, rewriting, editing, correcting, thinking about the cover, formats, publishing choices and all the details you don’t really consider when you first think, I might write a book.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about reaching that stage during this particular month.

Because if I wanted to explain what The People I Collected is about, I could almost use September as an example.

A godson getting married.

A son graduating.

Another son getting engaged.

Family gathering around tables.

Old friends moving into new homes.

Friends sharing Osso Bucco.

A friend met halfway in the Netherlands because finding two hours together mattered.

And then flying back across the world to the people — and one rather important Basset Hound — waiting in Vietnam.

Perhaps we don’t simply collect people.

Perhaps, if we are lucky, we become part of their collections too.

More about The People I Collected very soon.

Going Home… to Vietnam

And then suddenly the three weeks were over.

We were tired.

Very happy.

And already a little nostalgic.

But it was time to return.

There is something rather strange about packing your suitcase after visiting the country where you lived for most of your life and saying:

“OK, let’s go home.”

And meaning Vietnam.

That sentence probably summarises our expat experience better than anything else I could write.

Belgium remains deeply part of who we are.

Our family is there.

Many of our oldest friendships are there.

An enormous part of our history is there.

But HCMC is now where our everyday life happens.

Our apartment.

Our work.

Our routines.

Our new friends.

Our favourite places.

And, let’s be serious, somebody else was waiting there who had probably concluded that disappearing for three weeks was completely unacceptable.

#Woody!

So after weddings, graduation, Michelin-level gastronomy, pizza, engagement news, friends, family, 3 AM alarms, international flights and thousands of kilometres…

…it was time to go home and see the dog.

Perfect ending.

Looking Ahead – October 2026

October promises to be different.

But certainly not quieter.

There is already a potential trip to Hanoi to plan, another one to Singapore, and professionally I will start looking seriously at 2027 planning for my portfolio.

After September’s rather unusual combination of Vietnam, Belgium, the Netherlands, family celebrations, gastronomy and working across time zones, it will actually be nice to settle back into the rhythm of HCMC.

At least for a while.

Because if this first year-plus of expatriation has taught me anything, it is that the next experience is rarely very far away.

And that is precisely why we came.

Final Thoughts – Where Is Home?

September started beside the Saigon River and ended back in Ho Chi Minh City.

In between, we travelled thousands of kilometres to return to the place we once simply called home.

And perhaps the biggest surprise was discovering that the definition has changed.

Home is still Belgium.

But home is also Vietnam.

Perhaps home isn’t actually a place at all.

Perhaps it is the collection of people waiting for you at either end of the journey.

The adventure continues.